Featured Database Articles

Attribute Discretization: Customize Grouping Names - Page 3

We will process the Analysis Services database within
which we have been working, and then browse the Vacation Hours attribute
members to confirm that we have provided preliminary answers to the clients
stated requirements.

1.
Right-click
the Analysis Services project atop the tree in the Solution Explorer.

2.
Select Process
... from the context menu that appears, as shown in Illustration 9.

3.
Click Yes on
the dialog asking if you would like to save changes, which appears as depicted
in Illustration 10.

Illustration 10: Click Yes to Save All Changes before Processing

Information updates on the server, and then the Process
Database dialog appears, as shown in Illustration 11.

Illustration 11: The Process Database Dialog Appears ...

4.
Click the Run
button on the dialog.

The Process
Progress viewer appears, and generates periodic status updates for various
processing events. When processing is complete, we see a Process succeeded
message appear in the Status bar in the lower part of the viewer, as depicted
in Illustration 12.

Illustration 12: Process Succeeded Message Appears ...

5.
Click the Close
button on the Process Progress viewer to dismiss the viewer.

6.
Click the Close
button on the Process Database dialog to dismiss the dialog.

We are now ready to return to the Dimension Designer browser
to examine the results of our handiwork.

Browse the Newly Discretized Attribute with the Dimension Browser

3.
Click the Reconnect
button atop the tab, as shown in Illustration 13.

Illustration 13: Partial Browser View - before Reconnecting

The browser details update, and (assuming the All
Employees level remains expanded in the browser), we see ten groups appear, as
depicted in Illustration 14.

Illustration 14: The Discretized Attribute Members Groups

We see
the groups appear, as expected. Ten groups have been created, based upon the
algorithm selected by the Automatic discretization method.

4.
Leave the Employee
Dimension Designer open for a later section.

Browse the Newly Discretized Attribute with the Cube Browser

Lets go
one step further and examine the results of our selection of the Automatic discretization method from
another practical perspective, that of the cube browser. This will give us an
appreciation for the improvements seen by the information consumers in querying
/ analyzing from the affected data.

1.
Within the Solution
Explorer, once again, right-click the Basic cube (expand the Cubes folder as
necessary).

2.
Click Open on
the context menu that appears, as shown in Illustration 15.

Illustration 15: Opening the Cube via the Cube Designer ...

The
tabs of the Cube Designer open, and we arrive, by default, at the Cube
Structure tab.

3.
Click the Browser
tab.

4.
Click the Reconnect
button atop the tab.

5.
In the Metadata
pane, expand the Employee dimension by clicking the + sign to its immediate
left.

8.
Select Add to
Row Area from the context menu that appears, as depicted in Illustration 16.

Illustration 16: Adding the Vacation Hours Attribute to the Browser Row Area ...

We see
all ten Vacation Hours buckets appear in the rows of the browser pane.

9.
Click and drag
the Employee Name attribute to the immediate right of the physical column
containing the newly placed Vacation Hours buckets (a line will form at the drop
point), juxtaposing the Employee Names on rows to the immediate right of the Vacation
Hours, as shown in Illustration
17.

Illustration 17: Juxtaposing the Employee Name alongside the Vacation Hours in Rows

All ten Vacation
Hours buckets continue to appear in the rows of the browser pane  with +
sign expand buttons appearing to the immediate left of the bucket labels.

10.
Expand the 70-79
and the 90-99 Vacation Hours buckets by clicking the + sign to its immediate
left of each label.

The two Vacation Hours buckets expand, revealing lists of
the employee members whose total Vacation Hours place them within the
respective buckets in which they appear, as partially depicted in Illustration 18.

In what is but one example of how we can use the Vacation
Hours buckets, we can see lists of employees that have Vacation Hours on the
books for each of the ten buckets we have created via Automatic discretization.
We tell our client colleagues that they might use this arrangement to do far
more than present lists of the members of the various strata. They might also
flesh out the browser with other dimension members (such as Calendar Years,
etc.), drop in various measures (such as Reseller Sales and the like), and
perform analysis (as another simple example) upon employee balances of unused
vacation when viewed within the perspective of the sales figures attributed to
those employees.